When we left off last month, you were about to go get your tubes put in your ears. Luckily, all went well. The hardest part was the waiting.

In between the nurses and the doctor and the anesthesiologist coming to check on you before your surgery, there was a lot of time for you to get bored — and you grew tired of the distractions in the diaper bag pretty quick. You ended up exploring the prep/recovery area fairly thoroughly, and making yourself known to all the nurses. You barely even noticed when one of the nurses picked you up (with Curious George and your catbus) and carried you back to surgery without Mommy.

The surgery itself didn’t take long — Mommy hung out in the waiting room for maybe 10 or 15 minutes before being called back to talk to the doctor about how it went. Then I went back to get you, and you were confused and crying in a nurse’s arms. You calmed down pretty quick after we got you back into your normal clothes and watching TV in Mommy’s lap. We sat in the recovery area for the required half hour and watched The Land Before Time on their DVD player.

They released you with a prescription for antibiotic eardrops, which we used for seven days. You were actually pretty upset when we stopped needing to put them in every morning and night, and you asked for your eardrops for a few days afterward. (You’re kind of a creature of habit, and you crave consistency in your routine.)

A few weeks later, we went back for a post-operative check-up. Your ENT says you’re doing great! Your hearing is fine and your tubes are clear. You go back in six months for another check-up.

We’re not sure if it’s because your hearing improved after the tubes, or if you were just at that point in your development, anyway — but your pronunciation has improved by leaps and bounds this month, and you’ve started stringing several words together at a time.

You recognize most (if not all) of your letters — the capital letters, anyway — and you can count up to 20 (although you miss some numbers in the 14-16 range), and you can recognize numbers up through 10. You know your colors, too, and lots of shapes. You’re a big fan of shapes right now, and you point them out in places that Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t think of, like the triangle of light that shines on your wall at Quiet Time.

Your teacher at daycare says she calls you Mr. Smartypants, because you always know all the colors and shapes during circle time, and you make sure she knows you know. I told her the fruit don’t fall far from the tree, because Mommy was like that, too.

You’ve become kind of willful about wanting to do everything yourself lately. At the very least, you want to help, or to see. For Thanksgiving, Mommy let you help make some Pumpkin Fluff, and you got to lick the beater for the first time (it was just Cool Whip and canned pumpkin, plus some pumpkin pie spice, so it wasn’t a batter with raw egg that could make you sick).

Grammy came to visit for Thanksgiving! Mommy and Daddy and Grammy and Uncle Matt and Connor all went to Claddagh Irish Pub for their Thanksgiving Buffet, instead of cooking at home. You ate quite a bit, and loved all of it — especially the macaroni and cheese, of course.

Grammy spent the night and left the next day before lunch. You sure love your Grammy.

After Grammy left, and after you got up from your nap, we put up the Christmas tree. We were worried that you wouldn’t be able to leave it alone — that first evening was a challenge, but once we successfully explained the difference between a ball and an ornament, you stopped trying to take them off the tree and throw them. Thankfully.

Every time you come down the stairs, you still marvel at the Christmas tree, even if it’s not lit up. It’s been up for a few weeks now, and you’re only just now mostly ignoring it.

You’re quite the jokester, too, and you’ve been playing pretend more than ever. Mommy realized how much she says, “Really?” when she’s exasperated, because now you say it when Mommy asks you to do something — and you say it with this goofy grin on your face, like you’re being intentionally snarky (although I doubt you are).

Mommy and Daddy have been calling your stuffed animals your “friends,” and it’s caught on — now you call them your “friends,” too, which is kind of cute. (You actually have a real friend at daycare, Jacoby, who you look forward to seeing every time you go.) You like to ask Mommy to make your “friends” sing Twinkle Twinkle sometimes: George sings, “Ooh-ooh ahh-ahh ooh-ooh aaaaah,” Zip the cat sings in meows, and Totoro sings in growls. Mommy attempts to do an Elmo voice, too, although I’m no Kevin Clash Ryan Dillon.

I guess Mommy and Daddy must have said how heavy are every time we’d pick you up, too, because now everything you pick up — be it a bag of blocks or a dirty diaper — is “heeeeeeeavy!” You’re just being silly, though. You know what heavy really means.

One last thing: SNOW.

You love it.

You can’t get enough snowballs.

We got six inches of snow last weekend, and you loved every minute we were outside playing in it (until you got too cold after about 45 minutes and asked to go back inside). It’s kind of neat to see you loving the snow so much, after so many years of Mommy being numb to it (sometimes literally).